Método 3 allegedly involved in espionage cases in Spain - UPDATE Francisco Marco arrested

Police search headquarters Method 3 detective agency



JO | Barcelona

Updated Tuesday 2/19/2013 10:02 hours




National Police agents are recording Tuesday offices Method 3 detective agency after last night arrested its director, Francisco Marco, and three of his former investigators accused of revealing secrets.

The agency office located at 520 Diagonal Avenue, has lived throughout the morning a bustle of onlookers and journalists, who have been able to observe how police officers in plain clothes entered the same in search of documentation.

Agents also have moved to the former offices of the company, at 124 Aribau and located immediately opposite the already well-known restaurant La Camargue, the origin of the current crisis of espionage.

In that same room is suspected in 2010 recorded a conversation between the leader of the Catalan PP, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, and the former partner of Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, Victoria Alvarez, in which this would have revealed alleged laundering by the eldest son of the former president of the Generalitat.

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2013/02/19/barcelona/1361264501.html

Police arrest four people for political espionage in Catalonia

Updated Tuesday 2/19/2013 5:59 hours

The National Police have arrested in the last hours in Barcelona four people allegedly involved in the case of political espionage in Catalonia . This is the general manager of the detective agency of Method 3, Francisco Marco , the former workers Borreguero Alexander and Julian Peribáñez and chief operating officer of Method 3, Elisenda Villena , all accused of revealing secrets.

Detainees should be transferred to the Commissioner of the National Police in Barcelona's La Verneda , where the group operates technological crimes of Police, who is handling the case.

Also awaits you in the next few hours can be a judicial authorization to record Method 3 headquarters in Barcelona.

The arrests have occurred the same day that the police leadership , with the director general of police, Cosidó Ignacio, head had met in Madrid to discuss how to tackle urgently a crisis that has splashed at least , PP, CiU and PSC.

Following the latest revelations, the general secretary of CiU, Josep Antoni Duran Lleida, has requested the director of the National Intelligence Center, Felix Sanz, before the commission of the Congress for secret expenses explain if "dirty war" and is spying on the Catalan parties.

For his part, Secretary of the PSC Political Action, Antoni Balmón, announced that his party would not take legal action until they prove the information published so far and to link with the detective agency that was responsible for tracks.

The four arrested were directly involved in the case that uncovered the alleged plot, the recording of a meeting between the leader of the Catalan PP, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho , and Victoria Alvarez, former partner of the eldest son of former President of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol.

As reported by this medium over the last few days, and Julian Alexander Borreguero Peribáñez have been responsible materials microphone recording during a meeting in the restaurant 'La Camargue' of Barcelona



http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2013/02/18/barcelona/1361218535.html

so Metodo 3 were involved in money laundering and spying.
Now what can you do with information gathered from spying, blackmail people perhaps, for money that can then be re-laundered?
Now why would Brian Kennedy, local to PdL, employ Metodo 3 for the McCanns to find their missing child.
Somewhere in store, is a reference to MW club being a good holiday place for adults. The website has since been changed but had previously had the word 'boys'. Then the next year 'girls', but that is not there now.
What does any of the above have to do with trying to find Madeleine?

bobbin wrote:so Metodo 3 were involved in money laundering and spying.
Now what can you do with information gathered from spying, blackmail people perhaps, for money that can then be re-laundered?
Now why would Brian Kennedy, local to PdL, employ Metodo 3 for the McCanns to find their missing child.
Somewhere in store, is a reference to MW club being a good holiday place for adults. The website has since been changed but had previously had the word 'boys'. Then the next year 'girls', but that is not there now.
What does any of the above have to do with trying to find Madeleine?

How would he even KNOW about M3 ?

Seems Metodo3 bugged a vase of flowers and heard the leader of a political party discussing money laundering with a friend. Now the leader of that party has petitioned (and been accepted by a Judge) to get Metodo`s recordings of the conversation prohibited and also petitioned (and had accepted) for a list of all Metodo`s clients so they can see who ordered the spying.

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/02/18/inenglish/1361215624_416989.html

what if they bugged clients places and phones too!!.. eek!!! you know, and then used recordings to leverage some nice cash in hand non-existent investigative work

PeterMac wrote:

bobbin wrote:so Metodo 3 were involved in money laundering and spying.
Now what can you do with information gathered from spying, blackmail people perhaps, for money that can then be re-laundered?
Now why would Brian Kennedy, local to PdL, employ Metodo 3 for the McCanns to find their missing child. [...]

How would he even KNOW about M3 ?

***
Rhetorical question, PM?

Metodo 3 are trending WORLDWIDE on Twitter

Is the story that big?

ShuBob wrote:Metodo 3 are trending WORLDWIDE on Twitter

Is the story that big?

OMG, so they are, why would a relatively unknown Spanish Detective Agency warrent so much interest??

Exactly candyfloss, it's not who they are but who they are linked with in my very humble opinion

http://ansamed.ansa.it/ansamed/en/news/nations/spain/2013/02/19/Spain-four-arrests-Catalonia-spying-case_8273525.html

ANSAmed) - MADRID, 19 FEB - Four people from the 'Metodo 3' agency, including the owner, Francisco Marco, the director and two employees were arrested Monday night as an investigation into the Catalonia bugging scandal picks up pace.

Two of the arrested have admitted illegally taping conversations of members of Catalonia's Partito Popolare.

Partido Populare President, Alicia Sanchez Camacho, last week filed a complaint with police after claiming that a dinner in a Barcelona restaurant on July 7 2010 between herself and Victoria Alvarez, the ex girlfriend of Jordi Pujol junior, the son of former Catalan premier Jordi Pujol, was bugged.

In the illegally obtained recordings Alvarez was heard telling Camacho about alleged money laundering: 500 euro bank notes were stuffed in a suitcase bound for Andorra and her then boyfriend made threats not to reveal details of his family's money laundering activities. Sanchez Camacho alleges that the spying is politically motivated, given that the sister of Metodo 3 director Elisenda Villena, 'Ana' is head of justice in the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC).

Camacho hit back at criticism for not going to the police about Alvarez, by calling her story ''incomplete and inconclusive''. (ANSAmed).

Fancy that, two out of three of PIs that they employed were criminals. I hope Edgars powder is dry!

Have merged your thread here maebee as already posted here and thread title updated earlier.

Could metodo3 have really been working for kennedy and the mccanns just a cover

apologies if this has been posted before, but found this report from the London Evening Standard, 24 November 2007

''..



24 November 2007










































The private detectives hunting for Madeleine McCann were once arrested
in a phone-tapping scandal linked to leading politicians and
businessmen.



















Five senior members of the family-run firm Metodo 3 – including
director-general Francisco Marco, who is liaising with Kate and Gerry
McCann – were held amid claims of industrial and political espionage...

Mr Marco's mother, Maria Fernandez Lado, 57, who founded the agency
23 years ago, was pictured in handcuffs after being arrested as she
handed a client a cassette allegedly containing a phone-tapped
conversation.


'Murky past':The firm's founder Martina Lado


In a raid on Metodo 3's Barcelona offices, police seized handguns,
ammunition, listening equipment, cassettes and transcripts of taped
phone calls. But the 1995 case was dropped by a judge after defence
lawyers levelled accusations of police entrapment.

However, The Mail on Sunday's findings – including transcripts of
conversations in which Mr Marco's mother allegedly offers a tapping
service – will bring into question the suitability of the firm in
running the McCanns' investigation...''


Here is the link
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/madeleine-pictured-in-handcuffs-the-mccann-detective-once-held-over-phone-tapping-6674771.html

From Joana

McCanns former detectives, Método 3, arrested for illegal spying



http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2013/02/mccanns-former-detectives-metodo-3.html

mmm it would be good if they started singing like a canary in what they do know -- now theres a thought

Mccanns paid CROOKS in the search for their missing child

Now that woukd make a nice SUN headline

Addendum

Crooks say they never were paid as much as the mccanns said they paid them LOL

Inspectorfrost wrote:Mccanns paid CROOKS in the search for their missing child

Now that woukd make a nice SUN headline

Addendum

Crooks say they never were paid as much as the mccanns said they paid them LOL

Maybe they were! Not to find Maddie but to spy on the PJ.

The $100million remains - why did the PJ officer agree to meet with BK accompanied by one of the M3 detectives?

For one thing parallel PI investigation is illegal in Portugal, and for another thing BK has no business nosing into the investigation.

aiyoyo wrote:

Inspectorfrost wrote:Mccanns paid CROOKS in the search for their missing child

Now that woukd make a nice SUN headline

Addendum

Crooks say they never were paid as much as the mccanns said they paid them LOL

Maybe they were! Not to find Maddie but to spy on the PJ.

The $100million remains - why did the PJ officer agree to meet with BK accompanied by one of the M3 detectives?

For one thing parallel PI investigation is illegal in Portugal, and for another thing BK has no business nosing into the investigation.

?????

Inspectorfrost wrote:

aiyoyo wrote:

Inspectorfrost wrote:Mccanns paid CROOKS in the search for their missing child

Now that woukd make a nice SUN headline

Addendum

Crooks say they never were paid as much as the mccanns said they paid them LOL

Maybe they were! Not to find Maddie but to spy on the PJ.

The $100million remains - why did the PJ officer agree to meet with BK accompanied by one of the M3 detectives?

For one thing parallel PI investigation is illegal in Portugal, and for another thing BK has no business nosing into the investigation.

?????

Oops... I mean to say the $100m question...........etc.....

Far as I understand BK and a PI met with a PJ officer back in Nov? 2007. I stand corrected of course if I am wrong.

They did a wonderful job on finding new sightings.... mainly in Morocco for some reason.

Whilst a case is 'live' I believe it's illegal in Portugal to employ private detectives. When they were engaged, the case wasn't shelved yet. Not for many months.

BK did meet with the PJ in November 07 but they didn't know what the hell he was on about. Charitable acts I seem to remember.

tigger wrote:They did a wonderful job on finding new sightings.... mainly in Morocco for some reason.

Whilst a case is 'live' I believe it's illegal in Portugal to employ private detectives. When they were engaged, the case wasn't shelved yet. Not for many months.

BK did meet with the PJ in November 07 but they didn't know what the hell he was on about. Charitable acts I seem to remember.

or to plant bugs or reconnoiter to find out who would be willing to share a shilling.

bobbin wrote:

tigger wrote:They did a wonderful job on finding new sightings.... mainly in Morocco for some reason.

Whilst a case is 'live' I believe it's illegal in Portugal to employ private detectives. When they were engaged, the case wasn't shelved yet. Not for many months.

BK did meet with the PJ in November 07 but they didn't know what the hell he was on about. Charitable acts I seem to remember.

or to plant bugs or reconnoiter to find out who would be willing to share a shilling.

Chuckling at that bobbin, because I agree with you, and this case has made us all so cynical and world weary. I am having visions of someone trying to stick bugs in plant pots etc. now, a la James Bond.

Just keeping useful information in one place. This link has a long list of publications re Metodo at the bottom of the page.

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2011/12/scotland-yard-searches-for-clues-about.html

From Joana Morais hers is the only comment - so far!!

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/380363/Pep-Guardiola-spied-on-Gerard-Pique-and-other-Barcelona-players



No mention of the M. couple, that hired Método 3 in 2008 for close to 70.000 pounds per month. Why not?


«“It was a scam. They said they had fifteen people working on the
case but no, there were just three. They made up invoices for hotel
expenses and allowances for four people in the neighbouring country
[Portugal] and only one person travelled there, who in addition didn't
speak a word of Portuguese.”»
http://joana-morais.blogspot.****/2013/02/****-former-detectives-metodo-3.html

Sorry my mistake the comment in the Express was made by Pukka 5:44pm on Tuesday, 26th February 2013.

Barcelona Hire Detectives To Spy On Gerard Pique, Shakira

The agency Metodo 3 has fallen victim to Spain's economic crises, being forced to shut down private detective operations this year. In anger, the company's employees, now jobless of course, have begun to reveal secrets about their operations during their time with Metodo 3.

http://www.isportstimes.com/articles/6063/20130227/barcelona-hire-detectives-spy-gerard-pique-shakira.htm




Aiyoyo no problem

Barcelona spy agency scandal drags in Piqué, Shakira and politicians

Barcelona FC had defender followed as it was worried about relationship with Colombian pop star, ex-Metodo 3 staff claim

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 February 2013 16.53 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/26/barcelona-spy-agency-pique-shakira

It is a tale of private eyes, politicians, multi-millionaire football players, hip-gyrating Colombian pop stars and microphones hidden in posies of flowers.

At the centre of the blossoming scandal engulfing Barcelona's great and good lies a once ubiquitous detective agency, Metodo 3, whose safe full of secrets about the glamorous Spanish city's sordid underbelly is threatening to spill wide open.

As Spain's economy crumbles in the face of recession and austerity, Metodo 3 has joined the long list of companies to have closed its doors. Angry former employees have sought revenge by leaking some of the dirty tricks allegedly carried out on behalf of political parties and, now, the city's most famous soccer club, Barcelona FC.

The latest alleged victim of the agency's spying is the Barcelona and Spain defender Gerard Piqué, who was reportedly trailed on the orders of club bosses worried about whether his romance with the Colombian pop star Shakira and his embrace of the city's nightlife was damaging his form on the pitch.

The news website El Confidencial reported that the club asked for Piqué to be followed in 2010 in order to see how much time he was spending partying. It says in September 2010 Piqué was trailed after going to a pop concert in Barcelona. Detectives logged the drinks he had and the time he got home. El Confidencial said the player eventually realised he was being tailed, but the club managed to persuade him that it was just the tabloid press.

The club issued a confusing denial. "The club does not wish to comment on this because it has no documentary evidence that this ever happened and, as a result, we deny it," a spokesman said on Tuesday.

Although rumours that the club had spied on numerous players – including former stars Samuel Eto'o, the Brazilian Ronaldinho and Portugal's Deco – have circulated for several years, it is the first time that Metodo 3 has been named as the agency that allegedly carried out the work.

The agency's political activities first came to light in published recordings of a lunchtime conversation between a local leader of prime minister Mariano Rajoy's People's party (PP) and the angry former girlfriend of a businessman closely connected to the Catalan Democratic Convergence (CDC), the party that governs Catalonia. A microphone hidden in a centrepiece posy of flowers reportedly captured her tale of alleged money-laundering in Andorra and London.

Barcelona FC's former head of security Xavier Martorell is one of the key players in the scandal. Now head of Catalonia's prison service and a senior CDC member, Martorell has admitted hiring the agency to do work for the party. He is even reported to have requested reports on people within the CDC, though he strongly denies these allegations.

However, it seems most other major political parties also hired the agency. PP secretary-general María Dolores de Cospedal has admitted using Metodo 3, and former agency employees say they also worked for the Catalan branch of the socialist party. All say there was nothing illegal about the tasks the agency was asked to perform.

Police last week raided the agency's offices in Barcelona and Madrid and removed files, leading to speculation that they were now privy to secret reports on many of the most important people in the city.

Already Catalan politicians are claiming the government wants to get its hand on the documents as a way of gathering information on them and blocking moves towards independence. The head of Spain's CNI espionage service, General Félix Sanz Roldán, has publicly stated that his agency is not involved.

"Police last week raided the agency's offices in Barcelona and Madrid and removed files, leading to speculation that they were now privy to secret reports on many of the most important people in the city."

And now privy to secret reports on the McCanns?
Could that explain the Mccanns sudden rush to offer to settle with GA?